The Cloister and the Hearth: A Tale of the Middle Ages. Charles Reade Reade

      "You, too, Gerard," said Kate, "kiss me ere you go, for my heart lies heavy at parting with you this night."

      Gerard kissed her, and she went on her crutches home. The last thing they heard of her was a little patient sigh. Then the tears came and stood thick in Margaret's eyes; but Gerard was a man, and noticed not his sister's sigh.

      As they turned to go to Sevenbergen, the dwarf nudged Gerard with his bundle of parchments, and held out a concave claw.

      Margaret dissuaded Gerard. "Why take what is not ours?"

      "Oh! spoil an enemy how you can."

      "But may they not make this a handle for fresh violence?"

      "How can they? Think you I shall stay in Tergou after this? The burgomaster robbed me of my liberty; I doubt I should take his life for it if I could."

      "Oh fie, Gerard!"

      "What? Is life worth more than liberty. Well I can't take his life, so I take the first thing that comes to hand."

      He gave Giles a few small coins, with which the urchin was gladdened, and shuffled after his sister. Margaret and Gerard were speedily joined by Martin, and away to Sevenbergen.

CHAPTER XII

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      GHYSBRECHT VAN SWIETEN kept the key of Gerard's prison in his pouch. He waited till ten of the clock ere he visited him; for he said to himself, "A little hunger sometimes does well; it breaks 'em." At ten he crept up the stairs with a loaf and pitcher, followed by his trusty servant well armed. Ghysbrecht listened at the door. There was no sound inside. A grim smile stole over his features. "By this time he will be as down-hearted as Albert Koestein was," thought he. He opened the door.

      No Gerard.

      Ghysbrecht stood stupefied.

      Although his face was not visible, his body seemed to lose all motion in so peculiar a way, and then after a little he fell a trembling so, that the servant behind him saw there was something amiss, and crept close to him and peeped over his shoulder. At sight of the empty cell and the rope, and iron bar, he uttered a loud exclamation of wonder: but his surprise doubled when his master, disregarding all else suddenly flung himself on his knees before the empty chest, and felt wildly all over it with quivering hands, as if unwilling to trust his eyes in a matter so important.

      The servant gazed at him in utter bewilderment.

      "Why, master, what is the matter?"

      Ghysbrecht's pale lips worked as if he was going to answer; but they uttered no sound: his hands fell by his side, and he stared into the chest.

      "Why, master, what avails glaring into that empty box? The lad is not there. See here! Note the cunning of the young rogue; he hath taken out the bar, and—"

      "GONE! GONE! GONE!"

      "Gone? What is gone? Holy saints! he is planet struck."

      "STOP THIEF!" shrieked Ghysbrecht, and suddenly turned on his servant and collared him, and shook him with rage. "D'ye stand there, knave, and see your master robbed? Run! fly! A hundred crowns to him that finds it me again. No, no! 'tis in vain. Oh fool! fool! to leave that in the same room with him. But none ever found the secret spring before. None ever would but he. It was to be. It is to be. Lost! lost!" and his years and infirmity now gained the better of his short-lived frenzy, and he sank on the chest muttering "lost! lost!"

      "What is lost, master?" asked the servant kindly.

      "House and lands and good name," groaned Ghysbrecht, and wrung his hands feebly.

      "WHAT?" cried the servant.

      This emphatic word, and the tone of eager curiosity, struck on Ghysbrecht's ear, and revived his natural cunning.

      "I have lost the town records," stammered he, and he looked askant at the man like a fox caught near a hen-roost.

      "Oh, is that all?"

      "Is't not enough? What will the burghers say to me? What will the burgh do?" Then he suddenly burst out again, "A hundred crowns to him who shall recover them; all, mind, all that were in this box. If one be missing, I give nothing."

      "'Tis a bargain, master: the hundred crowns are in my pouch. See you not that where Gerard Eliassoen is, there are the pieces of sheepskin you rate so high?"

      "That is true; that is true; good Dierich: good faithful Dierich. All, mind, all, that were in the chest."

      "Master, I will take the constables to Gerard's house and seize him for the theft."

      "The theft? ay! good; very good. It is theft. I forgot that. So, as he is a thief now, we will put him in the dungeons below: where the toads are and the rats. Dierich, that man must never see daylight again. 'Tis his own fault; he must be prying. Quick, quick! ere he has time to talk, you know, time to talk."

      In less than half an hour Dierich Brower and four constables entered the hosier's house, and demanded young Gerard of the panic-stricken Catherine.

      "Alas! what has he done now?" cried she: "that boy will break my heart."

      "Nay, dame, but a trick of youth," said Dierich. "He hath but made off with certain skins of parchment, in a frolic doubtless; but the burgomaster is answerable to the burgh for their safe keeping, so he is in care about them: as for the youth, he will doubtless be quit for a reprimand."

      This smooth speech completely imposed on Catherine: but her daughter was more suspicious, and that suspicion was strengthened by the disproportionate anger and disappointment Dierich showed the moment he learned Gerard was not at home, had not been at home that night.

      "Come away then," said he roughly. "We are wasting time." He added, vehemently, "I'll find him if he is above ground."

      Affection sharpens the wits, and often it has made an innocent person more than a match for the wily. As Dierich was going out, Kate made him a signal she would speak with him privately. He bade his men go on, and waited outside the door. She joined him.

      "Hush!" said she, "my mother knows not. Gerard has left Tergou."

      "How?"

      "I saw him last night."

      "Ay? Where?" cried Dierich, eagerly.

      "At the foot of the haunted tower."

      "How did he get the rope?"

      "I know not; but this I know; my brother Gerard bade me there farewell, and he is many leagues from Tergou ere this. The town you know, was always unworthy of him, and, when it imprisoned him, he vowed never to set foot in it again. Let the burgomaster be content, then. He has imprisoned him, and he has driven him from his birthplace and from his native land. What need now to rob him and us of our good name?"

      This might at another moment have struck Dierich as good sense; but he was too mortified at this escape of Gerard and the loss of a hundred crowns.

      "What need had he to steal?" retorted he, bitterly.

      "Gerard stole not the trash; he but took it to spite the burgomaster who stole his liberty; but he shall answer to the duke for it, he shall. As for these skins of parchment you keep such a coil about, look in the nearest brook, or stye, and 'tis odds but you find them."

      "Think ye so, mistress?—think ye so?" And Dierich's eyes flashed. "Mayhap you know 'tis so."

      "This I know, that Gerard is too good to steal, and too wise to load himself with rubbish, going a journey."

      "Give you good day, then," said Dierich, sharply. "The sheepskin you scorn, I value more than the skin of any be in Tergou."

      And he went off hastily on a false scent.

      Kate